L. Huang | TU Delft Repository

Generation and Application of Maritime Route Networks

Overview and Future Research Directions

Journal article (2024) - Liang Huang, Chengpeng Wan, Yuanqiao Wen, Rongxin Song, Pieter van Gelder

The development of advanced ship positioning and intelligent sensing technologies has transformed navigation at sea, moving beyond reliance on captains’ experience and standard routes. The trajectories traversed by ships at sea contain valuable data that can be mined to map maritime transportation networks and inform intelligent navigation systems. Ship trajectory data at scale enables discovery of the underlying network of maritime routes, providing key insights for applications like intelligent navigation, abnormal behavior detection, trajectory prediction, and maritime traffic pattern analysis. This study reviews the development of research on maritime route networks (MRNs) derived from ship trajectory data. It summarizes the technical process to construct a MRN, contrasting approaches for identifying waypoints, extracting routes, and representing the overall maritime traffic network structure. Finally, this study explores potential applications of MRNs and anticipates promising future research directions in this domain. ...

Resilience analysis of maritime transportation networks

A systematic review

Review (2024) - Di Zhang, Jiale Tao, Chengpeng Wan, Liang Huang, Ming Yang

As supply chains in today's world become more complex and fragile, enhancing the resilience of maritime transport is increasingly imperative. The COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 exposed the vulnerability of existing supply chains, causing substantial impacts such as supply shortages, procurement constraints, logistics delays and port congestion, highlighting the need to build resilient maritime transportation networks (MTNs) and reigniting research on the resilience of maritime transport. Based on science mapping, we quantitatively analysed the domain of resilience of MTNs. We mainly study the resilience of MTNs from the following aspects: the construction of MTNs and their topological characterization, vulnerability-orientated resilience analysis of MTNs, recovery-orientated resilience analysis of MTNs, investment decision-orientated resilience analysis of MTNs, climate change-orientated resilience analysis of MTNs and pandemic-orientated resilience analysis of MTNs. This study reviews recent advances in MTN resilience research, highlighting research topics, shortcomings and future research agenda. ...

Spatiotemporal Point–Trace Matching Based on Multi-Dimensional Feature Fuzzy Similarity Model

Journal article (2024) - Yi Liu, Ruijie Wu, Wei Guo, Liang Huang, Kairui Li, Man Zhu, Pieter van Gelder

Identifying ships is essential for maritime situational awareness. Automatic identification system (AIS) data and remote sensing (RS) images provide information on ship movement and properties from different perspectives. This study develops an efficient spatiotemporal association approach that combines AIS data and RS images for point–track association. Ship detection and feature extraction from the RS images are performed using deep learning. The detected image characteristics and neighboring AIS data are compared using a multi-dimensional feature similarity model that considers similarities in space, time, course, and attributes. An efficient spatial–temporal association analysis of ships in RS images and AIS data is achieved using the interval type-2 fuzzy system (IT2FS) method. Finally, optical images with different resolutions and AIS records near the waters of Yokosuka Port and Kure are collected to test the proposed model. The results show that compared with the multi-factor fuzzy comprehensive decision-making method, the proposed method can achieve the best performance (F1 scores of 0.7302 and 0.9189, respectively, on GF1 and GF2 images) while maintaining a specific efficiency. This work can realize ship positioning and monitoring based on multi-source data and enhance maritime situational awareness. ...

Fishing Behavior Detection and Analysis of Squid Fishing Vessel Based on Multiscale Trajectory Characteristics

Journal article (2023) - Fan Zhang, Baoxin Yuan, L. Huang, Yuanqiao Wen, Xue Yang, R. Song, P.H.A.J.M. van Gelder

Accurate fishing activity detection from the trajectories of fishing vessels can not only achieve high-precision fishery management but also ensure the reasonable and sustainable development of marine fishery resources. This paper proposes a new method to detect fishing vessels’ fishing activities based on the defined local dynamic parameters and global statistical characteristics of vessel trajectories. On a local scale, the stop points and points of interest (POIs) in the vessel trajectory are extracted. Voyage extraction can then be conducted on this basis. After that, multiple characteristics based on motion and morphology on a global scale are defined to construct a logistic regression model for fishing behavior detection. To verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the method, vessel trajectory data, and fishing log data collected from Chinese ocean squid fishing vessels in Argentine waters in 2020 are integrated for fishing operation detection. Multiple evaluation metrics show that the proposed method can provide robust and accurate recognition results. Moreover, further analysis of the temporal and spatial distribution and seasonal changes in squid fishing activities in Argentine waters has been performed. A more refined assessment of the fishing activities of individual fishing vessels can also be provided quantitatively. All the results above can benefit the regulation of fishing activities. ...

TTMRN

A topological-geometric two-layer maritime route network modeling for ship intelligent navigation

Journal article (2023) - Chunhui Zhou, Jiale Xiang, Hongxun Huang, Yi Yan, Liang Huang, Yuanqiao Wen, Changshi Xiao

The construction of maritime route networks holds significant importance for autonomous navigation of vessels. In this study, a two-layer maritime route network modeling method based on huge amounts of ship trajectory data was proposed. Firstly, we introduce a novel method for extracting nodes of the marine route network, which identifies feature points in ship trajectories through clustering. Secondly, we use a spatial computing method to transform ship trajectory data into a sequence of waypoint regions and establish a node connection matrix to realize the nodes' connection of the topological layer route network. And routes are extracted between waypoint regions to characterize the connection relationship of the geometric layer network. Finally, by connecting nodes of the topological layer with the support of the connection matrix and waypoint regions of the geometric layer with the route, the two-layer maritime route network that combines topological and geometric layers is constructed. The proposed method was applied to the waters of Vancouver, successfully constructing a topological-geometric two-layer maritime route network. Overall, the proposed method is beneficial for improving the safety and efficiency of autonomous navigation of ships, and has a positive impact on the development of smart shipping industry. ...

Improved PER-DDPG based nonparametric modeling of ship dynamics with uncertainty

Journal article (2023) - Man Zhu, Kang Tian, Yuan Qiao Wen, Ji Ning Cao, Liang Huang

This study contributes to addressing the challenge of quickly obtaining an effective and accurate nonparametric model for describing ship maneuvering motion in three degrees of freedom (3-DOF). To achieve this, an intelligent ship dynamics nonparametric modeling method named improved PER-DDPG is proposed. This method leverages the deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm (DDPG) and prioritized experience replay mechanism (PER) and analyzes the characteristics between the goal of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and the modeling process of the nonparametric model. The PER mechanism is utilized to enhance the agent's understanding of the overall mechanism of ship motion by improving the utilization of samples. The meaning of target value is redefined due to transforming DRL aiming at maximizing cumulative rewards into maximizing the set of immediate rewards at each time step. To validate the performance of the proposed modeling method, we conduct simulation studies using a benchmark ship model i.e., a Mariner cargo ship dynamic model, and experimental studies using a real unmanned surface vehicle (USV). In the simulation test, we demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization of the proposed method through zigzag and turning circle tests. Furthermore, we verify the robustness and applicability of the proposed method by using datasets with uncertain environmental disturbances and datasets with different sampling frequencies. Additionally, the experimental tests conducted on the USV indicate the consistency of the proposed approach. ...

The review unmanned surface vehicle path planning

Based on multi-modality constraint

Review (2020) - Chunhui Zhou, Shangding Gu, Yuanqiao Wen, Zhe Du, Changshi Xiao, Liang Huang, Man Zhu

The essence of the path planning problems is multi-modality constraint. However, most of the current literature has not mentioned this issue. This paper introduces the research progress of path planning based on the multi-modality constraint. The path planning of multi-modality constraint research can be classified into three stages in terms of its basic ingredients (such as shape, kinematics and dynamics et al.): Route Planning, Trajectory Planning and Motion Planning. It then reviews the research methods and classical algorithms, especially those applied to the Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) in every stage. Finally, the paper points out some existing problems in every stage and suggestions for future research. ...

Abnormal behavior recognition of inland river ferryboat

Journal article (2017) - Liang Huang, Yi Liu, Yuan Qiao Wen, Chun Hui Zhou, Fan Zhang

At present, the supervision mode of inland ferrying was conducted passively by mainly human analysis and judgement based on VTS and AIS, which is not favorable to reply increasingly serious situation of marine security supervision. The historical AIS data of the ferryboat was analyzed to explore its motion pattern and obtain the probability density spatial distribution of motion characteristics of location, course and speed by using the kernel density estimation. Then on this basis, the detection algorithm of the ferryboat abnormal behaviors was established for location and speed abnormity, and actual AIS data was used to verify the algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can accurately recognize the abnormal behaviors of the ferryboat, which is helpful to the marine supervision. ...